After spending much of last week making the rounds in Manhattan, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is set to start the week in Toronto — and specifically, on the main stage of the Gateway Conference, a one-day event focused on Canada-China trade hosted by Chinese e-commerce giant the Alibaba Group, where the the prime minister will doubtless tout his government’s efforts to encourage such transglobal partnerships before settling in for a Q&A session — or, if you go by the Canadian Press heads up, a “fireside chat”— with Alibaba chair Jack Ma.

Later this morning, Trudeau will make himself available to the media before he and Ma retreat behind closed doors for a second — and likely far more candid — chat.

As a result, his Commons chair will remain empty for a sixth consecutive day, a state of affairs that is doubtless causing medium to high levels of frustration on the other side of the aisle, where Her Majesty’s Official Opposition has been waiting, with increasing impatience, for a second opportunity to call him out over his plan to tighten up the tax rules that govern private corporations.

At this point, the prevailing theory is that Finance Minister Bill Morneau is already preparing to rework some of the more contentious elements of the proposed overhaul in order to assuage fears that it could unwittingly target a far wider swath of small business that intended.

Nevertheless, Conservative deputy leader Lisa Raitt is expected to highlight her party’s ongoing campaign to force Team Trudeau to reconsider the proposed policy tweaks during a visit to Halifax this morning, where she’s scheduled to meet with employees of a local firm that will purportedly be affected by the changes currently under consideration, although

Back in the capital, Conservative MPs Erin O’Toole and Pierre Paul-Hus will hit the House Foyer to share their collective thoughts — and, most likely, continuing concerns — following the latest round of NAFTA re-negotiation talks, which took place in Ottawa over the weekend.

Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay will brief Canadian farmers, as well as other “agricultural stakeholders,” on the ongoing efforts to “modernize” the continental trade deal during a morning roundtable at his Ottawa offices, with Liberal MP and designated NAFTA parliamentary point-man Andrew Leslie also expected to be in attendance.

Finally, former prime minister Jean Chretien will join Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen for a special Canada 150 citizenship ceremony at the National Arts Centre.

ON THE PARLIAMENTARY AGENDA

When the curtain rises on the chamber later this morning, the first item on the agenda will be New Democrat MP Rachel Blaney’s bid to enshrine “the right to proper housing, at a reasonable cost and free of unreasonable barriers” in the Canadian Bill of Rights.

Later this morning, MPs will shift their attention back to the government’s proposed tweaks to the federal access to information law, which now appears poised to be dispatched to committee before the Thanksgiving break, although that’s still no guarantee that it will pass by the end of the year.

AT COMMITTEE

Over at CANADIAN HERITAGE, MPs are set to continue their investigation into systemic racial and religious discrimination in Canada — including, but not exclusively, Islamophobia — with testimony from a variety of legal experts, including representatives from the Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic, the South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario and the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers, as well as University of British Columbia associate professor Ayesha Chaudhry, who specializes in Islamic and gender studies.

Over at FINANCE, the fall pre-budget consultations continue through another extended three-hour session that will include presentations from the construction and transit sectors, anti-poverty activists, labour unions and the chemical industry, amongst other groups.

Finally, INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS members are on the road this week as part of an ongoing review of specific and comprehensive land claim agreements. The first stop: Delta, BC, where they’ll hear from the British Columbia Treaty Commission and the Union of British Columbia India Chiefs, as well as officials from other First Nations bands and communities across the region.